Chez Watson: Mr W's Birthday Meal

I'm taking Mr W to a posh hotel next weekend and treating him to a 6-course meal so decided to cook for his actual birthday rather than go out. The weather was awful anyway. I had planned on going to the gym before I started cooking but ended up running around, posting gifts to Australia and last-minute birthday dinner shopping and then Mr W set me an almighty challenge.

I was intending to cook butternut squash soup for a starter, as I'd had one delivered in my veggie box and, considering the work involved in the main course and dessert, I wanted something easy. I curse Masterchef for planting the idea in his head, but he suggested that maybe I should try making butternut squash ravioli instead. Well, red rag to a bull, I do like a challenge so I agreed and set about finding a good recipe.

Why do all the recipes I look at measure things in cups?? Annoying! A 'cup' totally depends on what you are measuring. Found the flour equivalent eventually but only after much swearing. The start of the stress! This was around 1:30pm by which time I'd given up all thoughts of the gym...

So I made my pasta and rested it, I roasted my butternut squash and pureed it with a little stock and mixed in cream and parmesan. I picked sage leaves for my brown butter and sage sauce, and then I set about rolling out the pasta with my old faithful rolling pin seeing as I don't have a pasta machine (not sure it would have been any easier). Started off with half the amount of pasta and rolled it out perfectly. Cut it into squares, spooned the squash mixture onto each square, covered them with another square and used a little tool to get the serated edges. Easy. Problem was there weren't enough so had to go through the whole rigmarole again whilst trying to get my main course prepared. The second batch suffered slightly and were a bit thick and therefore slightly al dente when cooked but ney bother, it's the thought that counts right? :)

I'd made the Toblerone mousse earlier - melted Toblerone, whipped cream and egg whites. Bit messy (and calorific) but well worth it.

I lined two of the ramekins with cling film so I could turn them out later and decorate the plates.

For main course, I cooked roasted rack of lamb with a herb crust (Raymond Blanc recipe), fondant potatoes (get me! Never tried them before but fancied a go after watching Masterchef and they turned out perfectly I'm pleased to report), parsnip puree, crushed minty peas and buttery carrots, with a port and redcurrant sauce.

I was soooo stressed by the time the starter was done but boy was it worth it! I was so proud, even though a couple were a little under-done. Served simply with the brown butter and crispy sage, and parmesan shavings, they were delicious.

I will definitely do pasta again but may need to do it a bit more in advance, and when the main is less ambitious.

We had a lovely Shiraz with the main course and, although the thermometer said the lamb was more cooked than it actually was (bit rare for Mr W but he ate it, perfect for me), it was all a success and I hope the pictures do it justice. The secret to the fondant potatoes was goose fat. God, I can feel my arteries fluffing up just thinking about it :-\ The amount of butter, fat and cream used yesterday is disgusting, honestly.

We had a long pause between main and pudding.... The mousse was the best I've made thankfully - sometimes it can get a little gritty but think that's down to over-whipping the cream. It went really well with the raspberries which were surprisingly nice for December (from Spain).